So this season has been a long and winding road. Some of it was definitely better than others, but The Following started off with a bang and ended much the same way. As much as I was sure, three episodes ago, that I’d probably never watch this show again, the finale changed my mind. I must know where things go from here!

Hardy… Dude, running off after you tell your people to cover you… You’re lucky you didn’t get shot by friendly fire. And forgive me if I think them picking up that sniper was waaaay too easy. Though, I have to say, you’d think Carroll’s people would stop assuming that Hardy is FBI. I mean, I guess he was back in the day and that’s how Carroll idolized him (or whatever you want to call it) so maybe that’s where their confusion comes in. Either way, that was a particularly brutal beating and, strangely enough, more difficult to watch than what Roderick did to Weston.

And when he just straight shot that guy in the face—yeah, that was pretty epic. It’s not lost on me that I found myself cheering for the hero to straight murder some people when he’s chasing down people who murder other people. A little bit of irony there, no? Also, I totally get why he left Weston behind. Everyone around him keeps dropping like flies, and he has a chance to actually save Weston (after he was supposed to die, but still).

I loved this episode for so many reasons. Everything played out so freaking well and… Let’s just get into it.

First, though, I still don’t get Carroll’s thing with watching videos of Hardy having sex with that follower (Molly, right?). I just… It skeeves me out in a serious way. I don’t see the purpose behind it, other than pure voyeuristic tendencies. Actually, that said, I suppose it could be chalked up to the belief people let down their barriers more during sex than any other activity. And he’s interested in seeing Hardy for who he really is (and, seriously, are we ever going to come back to the fact Hardy helped the man who killed his father OD?).

Beyond that, Carroll is obviously losing it. As Jacob points out, he’s got to be out of it from the pain meds and the drinking, not to mention I would think the twisting of the knife damaged something internally. And the shoddy job of whoever stitched it obviously isn’t holding up that well because he keeps bleeding through. While I think the injury is a contributing factor physically, it definitely sent Carroll off the deep end to be attacked by his Claire. She was his angel, a woman above all others, and she stabbed him while kissing him—that’s kind of hard to put a good spin on and, from his rambling to the poor couple he takes hostage, he actually TRIED to.

I love, love, LOVE this episode. There were nail-biting moments, combinations of characters I adore, and Claire actually surprised me! Winning all around.

I’m not even sure where to start. Let’s go with Emma. It was fantastic seeing a tiny bit of steel in her when she talked to Carroll after things had started unraveling. That’s the old Emma I adore. I had a moment of hoping she’d be the one to off Carroll, and I still kind of harbor it. There’d be some poetic justice about being murdered by one of his most loyal followers, the woman who loves him more than any other. But we shall see.

Once more, I have some seriously conflicting feelings about this episode. So much has changed from the beginning when it was all shock and awe, and not all of it for the good.

Claire. God, I HATES Claire. While I 100% understand her tunnel vision when it comes to her kids (I’d burn the world down for mine), the fact she totally ignores the fact she got so many people killed and then just moseyed on home to Carroll really annoys me. And then her trying to brazen her way through that encounter with Jacob? Dude, he might look like a nice pretty boy, but that sweetie isn’t home anymore. And her thing with Joe… I just don’t know how I feel about it. She’s pissed and scared and self-righteous, and it’s the latter that makes me want to smack her upside the back of the head. To me, she lost the ability to be on the side of good when her idiocy got people killed and injured (BATISTA!). If she was going to play the martyr route, she should have turned herself in AGES ago instead of running around, mucking things up.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this episode—in part because last one was SO good, and this one left me dissatisfied in a lot of ways. So let’s hit the stuff that made me cranky, and then we’ll circle back to the few good things that keep me hanging on.

CLAIRE. Oh my God, I wanted to slap Claire in the face repeatedly throughout this. They know Carroll’s people are coming for her, she knows his people have her son. What she SHOULD have done was get some fancy tracking device and go willing from the get-go so the FBI would have at least some sort of idea where to narrow down the location of the compound.

But NOOOOOO. Claire is on the run with Hardy, who can’t keep his head on straight when she’s around. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—I dislike them as a couple because she makes him weak and stupid. He put her above all others, which isn’t a terrible thing in an actual relationship, but is kind of crappy in the middle of a situation where countless people are in danger of being sliced up or shot with spear guns or lit on fire.

The FBI finally—FINALLY—acknowledged that Hardy is a wild card and pretty much needs a babysitter. Which is great, because it means more with him and Debra. She’s much less starry eyed than Weston, so theoretically less likely to ride off into the sunset to save the girl kind of thing. Then again, as this episode proved ONCE AGAIN, it’s always going to come down to a stand-off with Hardy and Follower Of The Week. To this, this is a little frustrating. There is SO MUCH good about this show, and to have it end really similar every week takes away some of the suspense. I know Hardy is integral to the plotting, but STILL.

Carroll still makes me a wee bit cranky because of the whole Emma thing last episode, but he was really on point through this one. The man was meant to be in a teaching-type environment, because he just glows when lecturing in front of a group. I also loved how he’s obviously feeling uncomfortable and perhaps more than a little bit guilty over sleeping with Emma, because he’s blowing her off and calling Hardy to reminisce about the woman they both love.

This episode once again left me with mixed feelings. There were things I LOVE LOVE LOVEd, and there were things I was less than impressed with.

First things first – Jury is still out as far as the new FBI director guy is concerned. He comes across like someone with something to prove, which kind of goes without saying since Carroll escaped TWICE in a ridiculously short amount of time. So he’s got an agenda and I’ll admit I was a little concerned he’d let his “I am in charge and YOU, sir, are not” attitude get in the way of the investigation, but he did bow to Debra and Hardy’s intuition and let them pursue the SUV on their own.

I have mixed feelings about this episode and a great majority of those come from the marketing for The Following rather than the episode itself. All I’ve heard via commercials is that this episode is going to have a twist no one saw coming. So I was sitting here, waiting to be surprised, and I wasn’t in the least.

Which isn’t to say the episode was bad. It definitely wasn’t. Some interesting elements came to light, and the entire cast was pretty much on point. But by shouting “YOU WILL NEVER SEE THIS COMING!!” from the rooftops, the marketing people kind of blew it.

I’ve spent the last eight-odd hours trying to compose myself so I can write something other than SQUEEEEEE! about this show.

I’ve seen a couple of people say that this episode jumped the shark and was completely unbelievable. While they’re entitled to their opinion, I completely disagree. We knew going into this show that there would be shocks and crazy moments. The entire premise of the show is that you don’t know who is a follower of Carroll.

I’d forgotten, though. It’s been a couple episodes since we’ve had an OMG THEM?!?!?? moment. This episode had a few.

I have to say, just when I think The Following can’t get any better, it goes and proves me wrong. Now we’ve moved past the AAAAAH screaming and into the I’m-so-tense-my-back-muscles-hurt.

Let’s start with Carroll since he blew me away this episode. Considering he was only in a grand total of maybe seven minutes, that’s pretty damn impressive. His scenes with the attorney gave me the chills in the best way possible. She’s sitting there, nearly crying, and he’s just got a pleasant smile on his face while he threatens her without actually threatening her. Personally, I find that type of charisma in a villain so much more terrifying than that guy who’s posturing and threatening and waving a gun around. Rationally, Carroll shouldn’t scare people like he does. I mean, he’s in freaking prison. It’s not like he’s going to successfully murder your entire family… Except maybe he can. As we see in the flashback with that same attorney, the man doesn’t have to do a whole lot personally because he’s got an army of wild-eyed followers willing to show up in people’s offices to cut off their fingers.

Okay, now that I’ve gotten my inner sixteen-year-old boy out of the way, let’s get into it. This episode definitely didn’t have enough Carroll in it for me. I might have toyed with waffling over how I feel about him, but let’s face it—I love the man.

I also love how his (maybe) perfect plan is spiraling into chaos. First off, let’s get to my favorite part of the episode. Maggie. Good lord, the woman really is a “very special girl” (as Carroll puts it). Apparently she’s taking it rather hard that Hardy killed her husband, so she’s all about some revenge via his sister. I was really, really happy that this didn’t take the traditional “I’m going to kill the last person on this earth related to you” route. No, Maggie was quite a bit more original than that. She lures Hardy in because he can’t resist acting as the white knight (more on that later), and then proceeds to pretty much disrupt his pacemaker. Though she’s been instructed not to kill Hardy, she reasons that this isn’t her killing him—this is her allowing the wound Carroll made all those years ago to kill him.

Whoa, Nelly! I take back every doubt I had concerning the second episode and then some! Every time I think this show is going to zig, it zags.

Jordy? Still scares me. And, seriously, I actually gagged in the closing scenes. There we have Hardy, all noble and describing Carroll, and then Jordy, shoving bandages down his throat. That level of devotion is freaking terrifying.

On to Hardy. I liked that this episode took him further from Claire. I maintain my suspicions about her (one giant love story…with Carroll), but I was glad to have more time with him on his own. His interaction with Debra is delightful. Having him deal with her—definitely not a damsel in distress—is fantastic. And Hardy’s total disregard for Weston’s attempt at bonding had me laughing a little bit. Weston’s so starry-eyed and full of hero worship, and Hardy is having none of it.

Though I really enjoyed—and was kind of freaked out by—this episode, it didn’t have quite the punch of the first one. I suppose that’s intentional since there’s no way they can continue on at that pace, but it’s left me considering why I’m less spazzy over it.

First off, let me say that Jordy scares the crap out of me. I understand that Carroll (and company) see him as an idiot and disposable, but that just adds to the whole fear. He idolizes Carroll and is doing a shoddy copy-cat with the college girls. (Side note: College Girl, letting a strange man into your house, even one in uniform, is a dumb thing to do. Standing there while he’s breathing hard and sweating and saying how much he’s been looking forward to this is an even dumber thing to do. Scream! Run! Something!) And him coming out of the attic or whatever like he’s freaking Michael Myers… I made some scared-girl noises there. I’m definitely glad that they didn’t just kill him off because, though he’s obviously dumber than a box of rocks and is just repeating what Carroll (and company) told him, the tears in his eyes when he said he didn’t think he was ready to die makes me want him to stumble about a bit more. Very curious to see how this’ll proceed.